CUTTING COSTS & BOOSTING SALES

Helping Costa find the perfect blend

We know building a productive business relies on an understanding of the finer details.

It’s about clocking the seconds spent; spotting the bottlenecks; counting the beans. So when the UK’s favourite coffee shop asked us to take a close look at their organisation, we were able to kick-start improvements in their efficiency.

If you’ve got 3,000 stores and 20,000 employees, how do you make sure you have the right number of people, serving the right number of customers, at the right time?

It’s a question that Costa had to ask when their parent company, Whitbread, brought in a new workforce management system to deal with staff scheduling.

Until then, they’d never really stopped to look at how efficient their business is – and how they could improve. They needed to build a picture of productivity across their stores and find the opportunities behind the facts and figures. That’s where we came in.

What did we do?

Once we’d listened carefully to understand Costa’s needs, we set up camp in 15 stores for five days. As an independent company, we could integrate with the teams and dip below the surface of everyday store life.

We used four different study methods.

We accurately timed tasks

We measured how long it took Costa’s people to complete in-store tasks, from brewing a Chocolate Orange Mocha to cleaning sandwich grills. Then we produced average figures. These Standard Minute Values (SMVs) help companies build labour budgets so they can set sales targets, understand how many work hours they actually need, and analyse variance across their people, stores and sites.

We quantified time spent serving customers

We looked at how baristas split their time across different types of activity and grouped them into three categories: tasks that directly served customers – like making drinks and taking payments; tasks that indirectly supported customers, like cleaning or restocking; and time spent not working – taking breaks or waiting for customers. We measured over the course of the trading day and across the whole week, using a method called Rated Activity Sampling. It illustrates the pace of work in different stores, and it’s a chance to compare benchmark percentages against other companies.

We spent a day in the life of managers

We followed in the footsteps of four store managers and three assistant managers over a seven-hour shift, to understand the split of their work responsibilities. How long did they spend serving customers and how much time did they dedicate to guiding colleagues?

We watched and listened

We made anecdotal observations about things like layout, equipment and communication.

HOW DID IT HELP?

Because we’ve spent time on the client’s side, we know how important it is to be given practical next steps. To not only have in-depth data, butalso clear advice on quick wins and longer-term strategy.

We gave Costa the information they needed to build an effective budget model. For the first time, they could accurately estimate how much tospend in stores to meet forecasted sales – and give customers a better experience.

We showed them how they could align their employee schedules with customer demand. We gave them new insights into their business. And we suggested actions they could take to improve performance. Here are just some of the ways we’ve helped set the wheels in motion:

We found the layout of the counters was causing bottlenecks and long queues. So Costa are trialling a new design, including a customer waiting area.

We highlighted that food took much longer to prepare than coffee in drive-through stores, which meant customers had to park. Now they’ve introduced a new, faster panini press. Customers no longer have to wait and baristas don’t lose time walking to the car park.

We showed that having more than one floor has a big impact on the time it takes to complete tasks. As a next step, Costa invited us back to carry out a data survey across all their UK stores. With the information we’ve given them, they can more equitably allocate salary funding and measure performance.

We reported that communication with colleagues wasn’t always consistent, so it was difficult to keep them up to speed about new offers. Following our study, Costa have ramped up the use of mobile phones and iPads to engage their people.

Tony Sanders

Manager at Whitbread, Costa’s parent company

“ReThink tailored their approach to exactly match our business needs. Their work formed a vital part of our project to optimise labour across our Costa stores, and we valued how flexible they were as the project’s scope changed and developed.”

SPOTTING TRENDS AND TRACKING PROGRESS

Keeping Vodafone connected

In an industry that can change overnight, how do you improve productivity, stay responsive and keep long-term customers happy? For Vodafone, the answer has been more evolution than revolution. Through smart data collection and analysis, we’re constantly helping them identify what’s working and what isn’t, so they can boost store performance and keep moving in the right direction.

In 2012, Vodafone asked us to measure the efficiency of their stores and identify areas for improvement. We worked with them in seven countries and across two continents, sharing our insights and giving them plenty of ideas along the way. We didn’t stop there.

The telecoms sector is characterised by innovations that can quickly change people’s priorities and behaviour. But customers are locked into phone contracts that mean they might not visit their network provider’s stores for a couple of years. After our initial studies, Vodafone were keen to develop more productive stores but they knew big, dramatic changes weren’t the answer. They needed to play the long game – chipping away at challenges, tweaking processes and regularly evaluating progress.

We’re always on call for Vodafone. Each year, our team spend at least five days at ten different stores across the UK. We refresh their activity data, measuring the average time it takes their people to carry out tasks on the shop floor and behind the scenes. We look at the stores’ efficiency, analysing how hard teams are working and clocking time spent helping customers with advice or a sale and time spent not working. Then we make anecdotal observations, watching and listening to the team and paying attention to their customer conversations.

Once we’ve collected all the facts and figures, we compare them with previous years of Vodafone data and against other retailers. We check everything’s on track, and look at what’s changed and why.

We’ve triggered a shift in thinking

Vodafone HQ were surprised by the number of hours colleagues spent waiting for customers, or on activities that didn’t add value. Our insights gave them the information they needed to take a new approach to colleagues planning; introducing systems that match colleagues patterns to footfall and reducing back-office time by around 12.5%. We also opened their eyes to the amount of time it takes to sell a phone – from the transaction itself to registering a new number. It created new opportunities for more streamlined processes.

We’re keeping things on track

By continuing to monitor progress every year, we’re helping Vodafone build a robust bank of data and a detailed picture of performance. They can see how changes affect their stores and impact resources and colleagues scheduling. We’re also helping them stay ahead of the game by identifying shifting shopping trends. For example, customers are increasingly prepared when they visit a store – they know which phone they want to buy and how much they should spend. It means there are more opportunities to upsell extras like insurance and broadband.

We’re helping test innovations and communicate priorities

We played a supporting role road-testing Vodafone’s new virtual queuing system, which lets customers book an appointment in store and sends a text message when they’re next in line. It means they’re free to wander while they wait, and it gives store teams a valuable heads up – so they can offer more tailored, efficient service. We measured average waiting times and gathered feedback during the trial stages, providing HQ with a chance to fine tune the system before rolling it out.

By observing the way colleagues interact with customers, we’re also able to show Vodafone whether investments are translating to conversations on the shop floor. The telecoms giant recently developed My Vodafone, an app that lets customers top up from anywhere. It was designed to make life easier for the customer and free up precious sales time in stores, but we found colleagues weren’t talking about it enough. It helped explain the app’s download figures and why people were still visiting stores to top up. And it’s inspiring Vodafone to retrain their colleagues about communicating priorities.

Since we started working with Vodafone, we’ve helped boost their efficiency index by 7% in their UK market, without any negative impact on their sales and service KPIs. With our insights, they’ve reduced time wasted and increased time well-spent with customers in their stores. And by constantly topping up their data, we’re helping them move with the times.

Sandy Nicholson

Operational Development Manager

“I don’t just see ReThink as a supplier. I see them as a business partner who takes the time to understand what we need and build on the original brief. They’re always on hand for help and advice.”

DRIVING PERFORMANCE

Helping Schuh step up the pace

Is it quicker to sell a pair of kids’ shoes or an adult’s? What about men’s compared to women’s? These kinds of questions seem simple, but they can unearth a gold mine of useful information. We helped Schuh budget effectively and shed light on their business.

Schuh sell men’s, women’s and kids’ shoes. To do that, they employ a range of staff in their stores. Each role covers a bunch of responsibilities. And many different tasks back up each sale. The company asked us to find out how long it takes their people to sell shoes, so they could fine-tune their budget model. We knew we could help. But because that research links to so many aspects of their business, we also knew it would throw up plenty of opportunities to drive performance.

What did we do?

We turned our attention to seven Schuh stores. Some just sold kids’ shoes. Some had a mixed offer. We spent at least three days studying each one.

As well as measuring tasks like stock replenishment and label printing to find standard minute values (SMVs), we measured and compared selling times for kids’, men’s and women’s shoes. We looked at the percentage of time spent serving customers. And we analysed the responsibilities and effectiveness of each job role – not just comparing them within a single store, but across all seven of our research sites. We examined the impact that had on SMVs and overall store efficiency.

Finally, to help uncover the stories behind the data, we studied the wider picture. We looked at the aspects of the business that interact with everyday sales – like the distribution of equipment and the layout of stock rooms.

HOW DID IT HELP?

When a company asks us to find the numbers at the core of their business, it’s often just the beginning of a long-term shift towards improved productivity, sparking new leads and ideas.

We gave Schuh the granular detail they needed to start building a more effective budget model. Because it gives them a clear idea of the number of staff it takes to run each store, they’ll use the model to plan their wage spend for the entire workforce.

Schuh told us they’re also using the SMVs to set expectations for their staff. For the first time, they’re able to back up discussions about performance with concrete facts. It can make a real difference on the shop floor; if employees aren’t sure how long they’re supposed to spend on a task, then it’s difficult for them to feel motivated to work more efficiently.

Our study showed that clarity is just as important when it comes to job responsibilities. We found the least effective role in Schuh stores lacked definition and had the widest range of responsibilities. And that had a knock-on effect for overall store performance. The highest achieving stores tended to give their staff a tighter focus. For example, they made sure that during each shift, one team member concentrated on observing customers, and as a result, closed more sales.

Our work’s improving the way Schuh budget and giving them plenty of food for thought. They think it’ll have a big impact on their business.

Phil Whittle

Head of Store Operations at Schuh

We really valued ReThink’s willingness to share their experience and guide us through a process that was completely new to us. They quickly developed a good understanding of our needs, and suggested positive solutions. We’re looking forward to working together in the future.”

DEFINING BENCHMARKS AND SETTING GOALS

Helping Debenhams find the right design

Dozens of brands. Hundreds of stores. Thousands of colleagues. It’s not easy to run a tight outfit when you’re a major department store. But get it right, and the payoff can be huge. Debenhams called us in to talk shop, spot opportunities and set them on a course for increased productivity.

From Jasper Conran to Frost French, Designers at Debenhams and a range of carefully curated concessions have helped make the retailer a British high street institution. Variety is a department store’s lifeblood, but it can also add a layer of complexity that affects efficiency. Profit margins are tighter on external brand products, and processes are constantly being introduced, tweaked and dropped. Throw in the added complications of multiple floors and different-sized stores, and the risk of time wasted is a real one.

The solution? Taking stock of what’s working, what isn’t and what improvements could be made. We helped Debenhams understand their current productivity levels – and design a plan of action to increase them.

We sent our analysts to scope out ten Debenhams stores across the country. Scrutinising every in-store task carried out by Debenhams’ people, they measured, watched and listened, coming up with average task times and critical observations. It helped us identify where time was being wasted and where it was being well-used – and how that compared to other retailers and companies.

To add another level of insight, our team shadowed store managers as part of our ‘day in the life’ studies. The aim was to work out how they split their time and what was blocking them from spending valuable minutes at front of house – something we know can help motivate colleagues and drive the pace of work on the shop floor.

We pinpointed areas for improvement

We uncovered important opportunities to cut down minutes spent on tasks that didn’t add value or weren’t customer facing, and found that small jobs were expanding to fill available time. A confusing array of clothes hangers were making jobs unnecessarily complicated, visual merchandising was eating up a bit chunk of colleagues’ time, and moving between floors to restock products wasn’t as smooth a process as it could be. There were also big inconsistencies between stores.

It all pointed towards a broader need to simplify processes, set clearer goals and introduce more guidelines to keep colleagues focused.

We made practical recommendations

Our suggestions included:

* Making the most of tablets and technology, allowing managers to complete admin tasks on the shop floor, rather than being tied to the back office

* Training colleagues to be more aware of what they’re carrying as they walk between floors. Can they reduce journeys by carrying more items at once?

* Introducing store specific guidelines for visual merchandising, so teams have a clearer idea of what’s expected of them and how much time they should dedicate to the task

* Learning from stores that spend more time with customers For example, if a store is performing well, even though its managers have fewer sales updates, maybe other stores should follow its lead and streamline in the same way?

We laid the groundwork for the next step

So far, we’ve helped Debenhams identify 60 hours of opportunities per store, per week. We’ve given them data they can use to iron out inconsistencies, clarify processes and make solid decisions for the future. The retailer’s next step is using the average task times we produced to build an operating model that will tell them exactly how many colleagues they need to run each store effectively. It’ll make a complex business a lot simpler.

Nancy Foster

Head of Store Operations and Transformation

“ReThink’s help has been vital. Their findings played a key role in our strategy to release more time to serving our customers.”

IMPROVING BRAND CONSISTENCY

Lifting the lid on Pandora’s stores

When you’re a luxury retailer, customer experience takes on a new level of importance. You have to turn up the charm, and make sure it’s consistent across all your stores. That’s no mean feat when you franchise your brand. We gave Pandora the impartial overview they needed to set store standards, balancing efficiency with first-class customer service.

Pandora are among the biggest jewellery retailers in the world, with over 330 concept stores in the UK alone. More than 90% of those are run by franchisees. It’s an effective model for a business with a strong brand, but handing over control of everyday operations makes it harder to keep an eye on performance.

How did we help ?

The company contacted us to make sure all their stores were operating effectively, while giving customers the ‘Pandora experience’. As independent experts, we could objectively investigate trends across franchise partners as well as the brand’s own stores. We needed to spot the inconsistencies, but also harness the most successful aspects of thinking differently.

We pinpointed inconsistencies

Pandora expected to see differences, but they were surprised by just how inconsistent stores were. We found franchise partners ran tighter staffing schedules, which boosted efficiency but increased the risk of longer queues and missed sales opportunities. Owned-and-operated stores had greater staff resources, but their time wasn’t always used effectively. And there was massive variance across all stores for the time it took to check off stock.

But where there’s difference, there’s also opportunity. We know how important it is to learn from the high-achievers; the stores that are doing things well. We pinned down the factors that all effective stores had in common: their people spent more time talking to customers and helping them try on jewellery, and less time talking through brochures. We also made recommendations to speed up behind-the-scenes processes, like stock handling. Our work gave Pandora practical tips they could suggest to all their partner organisations.

We highlighted areas for improvement across the board

We showed Pandora they could make improvements in all their stores – not just to boost productivity, but to also enhance customer experience. Like creating rotas that match customer demand, and timing breaks to avoid big queues at busy periods. Within their teams, we found a ‘meet and greet’ role wasn’t working and needed clarification. They’re already taking steps to redefine it.

We established benchmarks for spending and performance

We’re using the SMVs we produced to build Pandora a detailed budget model. It will give them a way to link store performance with store spending – setting a target and a benchmark for investment in resources. It’s a level of insight they’ve never had before, and they think it will play a major role in holding stores to the Pandora standard.

What Did We Do ?

To get a feel for the variance across Pandora’s portfolio, we turned our spotlight on 10 different sites: a mixture of partner-run and owned-and-operated stores. We spent five days in each.

To get a feel for the variance across Pandora’s portfolio, we turned our spotlight on 10 different sites: a mixture of partner-run and owned-and-operated stores. We spent five days in each.

Our crack team of trained analysts timed everyday tasks, like selling a bracelet or updating a display, and came up with averages, or standard minute values (SMVs). We looked at the percentage of time teams spent on activities that added value for customers, and how hard employees were working. And we put different job roles under the microscope to see how each store divided responsibilities.

To give context to those measurements, we plotted staffing levels against footfall and anecdotally observed customer experience and queuing times.

Then we crunched the numbers and put them side by side. We looked at three things:

How partner stores compared with owned-and-operated stores.

How Pandora stores fared in general against other retailers and industries.